Outdoorsmen, such as hikers, hunters, mountain climbers and the like typically carry all of the necessary camping equipment with them on a backpack frame. Backpack frames usually are made of lightweight metal, such as tubular aluminum or the like, in the form of a generally vertical frame having a pair of spaced-apart vertical side members which are interconnected at the top and at intermediate points by cross members. The frame has shoulder straps and a hip belt for distributing the weight of items carried on the frame comfortably on the hiker using the backpack.
Generally, a pack made of nylon or other suitable material is attached to the frame. Such packs usually have a large central compartment with a flap-covered opening at the top. Frequently, there are one or more side pockets on each side of the central pack, which are separately accessible, and the exterior of the main body portion of the pack often has one or more smaller pockets located on its exterior surface. This permits different items to be carried in the various pockets and portions of the pack; so that they may easily be separately accessed. Usually, such frames have a space at the top, above the pack, to which a lightweight tent or sleeping bag may be attached, and a similar space below the main pack, again, to which either a sleeping bag or a lightweight tent may be attached.
Tents typically carried by backpackers are made of lightweight material, such as nylon, and typically include sectionalized poles, usually made of flexible fiberglass, for supporting the tent in its erected position. When this is done, the backpack either then must be placed separately inside the tent, if that is the desire of the hiker, of it is left outside the tent. During rainy weather, or when marauding animals are likely to be encountered, it generally is not advisable to leave the backpack outside; so that it must be placed inside the tent. When this is done inside a standard tent, the backpack takes up space that otherwise is used by the tent occupants, and it is cumbersome to move the backpack into and out of the tent.
In the past, specialized backpack frames have been designed for providing a carrying frame when the backpacker is hiking, which is utilized to provide a frame for a cot or a tent. Three patents directed to devices of this type are the patents to Smith et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,931,918; Velazquez U.S. Pat No. 3,971,495; and Lindner U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,812. The devices disclosed in all three of these patents require a specialized construction of the backpack or backpack frame in order to provide the tent (or cot) capability. None of the devices disclosed in these patents are adaptable to a standard backpack; and most of the bulk of the device is directly employed for the storage of the frame members and the tent or cot material. None of them have any provision for making the contents of the parts of the backpack, which are not used directly in constructing a tent, accessible from within such a tent.
A patent directed to another type of combination backpack frame and tent is the patent to Carter U.S. Pat. No. 3,822,813. This patent discloses a backpack frame which has telescoping and pivoting members to extend it to a length sufficient to overlie a sleeping bag placed underneath it. In the extended form, the frame is used to suspend a tent attached beneath it. Both ends of the frame need to be attached to some upright support to hold it up above the sleeping bag located within the tent. Once again, a standard backpack frame is not used; and there is no provision for making the pockets of the pack of a standard backpack accessible from within the tent.
Two other patents are specifically directed to backpack frames which are disassembled to provide a number of component parts for re-assembly into a tent frame. These are the patents to Pava No. U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,138 and Dean et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,217. These devices do not employ standard backpack frames. In addition, the backpack contents, which normally are attached to a backpack frame, must be completely removed from the frame, which is disassembled and then re-assembled to form the tent frame.
It is desirable to provide a combination backpack and tent system which can be used with a conventional backpack without requiring modification of the backpack itself, and which, when assembled, encloses the backpack within the tent in such a way that the contents of the pack itself are accessible from within the tent.